Views of Gender in Early Childhood

项目摘要 幼儿的本质主义性别观(即，性别是与生俱来的、不变的、信息量大的、 到目前为止，在所有被研究的文化中，(离散的)在儿童早期被发现是僵硬的，这导致了研究人员 将性别本质主义解读为早期出现的认知缺省。拟议的工作解决了 通过对性别发展的考察，证明性别本质主义是不可避免的这一信念的正确性 性别不一致和性别“典型”儿童中的本质主义。性别不一致的儿童 (那些在生理性别和内在性别意识上存在分歧的人)为 回答这个问题，因为他们自己的性别认同无视本质主义观点的核心组成部分 性别(例如，认为性别是由性别决定的，性别是离散的，等等)。因此，性别 与性别不一致的儿童自己的经历可能会导致早期的非本质主义信念 性别，这表明关于本质主义的更广泛的理论将需要修改。在这项工作中，我们 进一步扩大我们对本质主义的理解，问一问本质主义是一种领域通用的还是 特定领域的认知偏差。如果本质主义是一种领域通用的能力，我们预计会发现性别 本质主义与其他社会类别(如种族)和自然种类(如动物)的本质主义有关。 此外，如果GNC儿童在性别本质主义的水平上与典型的性别儿童不同，他们也会 在他们的其他本质主义水平上有所不同。相比之下，如果性别本质主义是特定于领域的，那么任何差异 在性别方面，本质主义将不会对其他类型的本质主义产生任何影响。我们的第三个重点领域涉及 性别本质主义的社会化，考察性别不一致和性别的程度 典型的儿童性别本质主义反映了他们从父母和社区得到的信息 关于性别。最后，我们的目标是检视性别本质主义与偏见之间的关系。 性别典型儿童中的性别不一致儿童。这些文献提供了相互矛盾的证据 关于社会范畴的本质主义和偏见之间的关系。因为性别 不守规矩的孩子往往会受到同龄人的高度歧视和偏见， 了解这一联系对于减少性别不一致的同伴受害具有至关重要的意义 孩子们。我们不仅将研究这种联系，还将测试我们是否可以改变儿童的性别 如果是这样的话，这是否会导致对性别不一致儿童的偏见减少。 这项工作不仅将扩大我们对本质主义的理论理解，而且将拓宽我们的 儿童早期对性别不一致的理解。

Project Summary Young children’s essentialist views of gender (i.e., that gender is innate, immutable, informative, and discrete) are found to be inflexible in early childhood in all cultures studied to date, which has led researchers to construe of gender essentialism as an early-emerging cognitive default. The proposed work addresses the validity of this belief that gender essentialism is inevitable, by examining the development of gender essentialism among gender nonconforming and gender “typical” children. Gender nonconforming children (those whose biological gender and internal sense of gender diverge) present a unique opportunity for answering this question, as their own gender identity defies central components of an essentialist outlook on gender (e.g., believing that gender is determined by one’s sex, that gender is discrete, etc). Thus, gender nonconforming children’s own experiences with gender might lead to early non-essentialist beliefs about gender, suggesting that broader theories about essentialism would need to be modified. In this work, we further expand our understanding of essentialism by asking whether essentialism is a domain-general or domain-specific cognitive bias. If essentialism is a domain-general capacity, we expect to find that gender essentialism is related to essentialism of other social categories (e.g., race) and natural kinds (e.g., animals). Further, if GNC children differ from gender typical children in their levels of gender essentialism, they will also differ in their levels of other essentialism. In contrast, if gender essentialism is domain-specific, any differences in gender essentialism will have no implication for other types of essentialism. Our third area of focus involves the socialization of gender essentialism, examining the extent to which gender nonconforming and gender typical children’s gender essentialism mirrors the messages they receive from their parents and communities about gender. Finally, we aim to examine the relation between gender essentialism and prejudice against gender nonconforming children among gender typical children. The literature provides conflicting evidence regarding the relation between essentialism of social categories and prejudice. Because gender nonconforming children tend to experience high levels of discrimination and prejudice by their peers, understanding this link has crucial implications for reducing peer victimization of gender nonconforming children. We will not only examine the link but will also test whether we can change children’s gender essentialism and if so, whether this will result in a reduction of bias against gender nonconforming children. Together this work will not only expand our theoretical understanding of essentialism, but will broaden our understanding of gender nonconformity in early childhood.